Rance 01: Quest for Hikari

 In order to prepare myself for Rance X, i tried to complete most of the Rance games before moving on the final Rance Title to make the Journey for this Epic Fantasy feel more worthwhile. As i reached the True Ending for Rance IX, i set my eyes upon the Remake of Rance 1 Quest of Hikari. Since Quest for Hikari is the earliest title of Rance series, it only took me two days to finish the game but for most readers it should take less than a day once the Translated version comes out. Overall Rance 01 is quite fun revisit of the Older Rance title as Alicesoft add new battle mechanics for this game, fixing the flaw that Rance 02 had. There is actually 4 Episode H-OVA for Rance 01 which essentially covers the game's main plots, nonetheless both Game and OVA had their own merits.

 For the first game of the Legendary Adventurer, Rance found himself traveling to the Kingdom of Leazas in order to find missing girl named Hikari Mi Blanc. Ultimately Rance's journey in the capital city of one of Continent's major nation led him to Lia Parapara Leazas, future ruler of the Kingdom and Rance's most devoted supporter. While 01 doesn't have particularly epic adventure compared to the later Rance Title, It won't be a Rance game if the Brutal Warrior doesn't sleep with cute girls and rescue Damsel in Distress.

 When Rance 02 came out as the first remake of the older Rance Title, it is a clunky mess due to outdated gameplay mechanics. As such Alicesoft probably decided to throw in something new for Rance 01 and thus we have Poker Chips betting as the battle mechanics. In this Battle Mechanics you have Rance's equipments represented as Poker chips, each with their own attributes and you bet these chips to fight the opponents. The essence of Rance 01 battle mechanics is all about Hand Management as you need allocate your Equipment Poker Chips accordingly with the enemy actions as each equipments tend to have significant cooldowns, especially the stronger equipments.

 For the endgame situation, ideally you should already have good hand size and at least reserve 5 Slots for Shield. There is no need to concern with money during early game as the last two dungeons are good source for GOLD. Also make sure to use the Aliceman Chip and clear the Thief Rat quest as these will provide significant bonus stat. The final boss is relatively pushover as long as you are well prepared on the equipment side.

 Throughout Rance series, the Brutal Warrior is always depicted to have unreasonable amount of dislike toward men and insatiable lust for Cute girls. However one of Rance's redeeming value is that he will always protect Damsel in distress and lend his help which has been consistent throughout the series. Rance 01 depicted this peculiar Rance's aspect quite well with his interaction with Lavender, a girl ghost who commit suicide after broken down by Lia's torture. I think Alicesoft could revisit this story if they ever plan Rance X Magnum or Gaiden where Reincarnated Lavender returned the Favor to Rance.

Even if Rance 01 is a short game, it still has some decent share of cute girls. While Pulptenks is the obvious favorite, I quite like Yulang and Lavender. It is such a shame none of them got any continuation post Rance 3.

 With Rance 01 Quest for Hikari finished i will be setting for Rance 03 Remake which i really look forward to because Rance 03 is when Rance achieved his first major accomplishment. I will be anticipating Rance's interaction with Gele because she is one of my favorite Rance's girl and i think the voiced interaction would be quite something. I wonder what Rance 04 had in store if it got its eventual remake